WASHINGTON (AP) — A $108 billion measure that would boost funding for infrastructure projects and housing subsidies for the poor is moving ahead in the Senate.

The measure cleared a procedural hurdle by a bipartisan 73-26 vote Tuesday, and that sets up days of debate with the goal of passing the measure next week.

But without a broader budget agreement in place, the spending gains for Democratic priorities like road projects and bridge repairs are illusory. The huge measure spends about $10 billion more than a House GOP version and is part of a budget framework set up by Senate Democrats that seeks to replace deep cuts to agency operating budgets with tax increases and more modest curbs on spending.

The measure is one of the 12 annual spending bills that need to be passed each year to set Cabinet budgets. The Democratic-led Senate and GOP-controlled House are in sharp disagreement over the budget and there’s no sign the impasse will be broken anytime soon. This means the government will largely remain on autopilot under a mandatory, across-the-board spending cuts that came about as a consequence of Congress’s failure to agree on a broader budget.

As a result, the Senate measure as written would be subject to those cuts, so even if it were to somehow advance to President Barack Obama’s desk, it would be subject to sequestration that would reverse most of its spending increases. The path of least resistance is to pass what in Washington-speak is known as a “continuing resolution,” a measure that funds the government at current levels with minimal adjustments.

“The appropriations bills between the two Chambers are so far apart that aligning them would be difficult, if not impossible,” said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, top Republican on the Appropriations Committee. “The end game will probably be a continuing resolution.”

The budget year ends on Sept. 30. A stopgap spending bill would be required to prevent a partial shutdown of the government as negotiations drag on through the fall. The appropriations bills are likely to get entangled with a must-pass measure to increase the government’s borrowing cap.

“Democrats haven’t given up on reversing the sequester and setting sound fiscal policy through the regular order of the budget process,” said top Senate Democrat Harry Reid, D-Nev. “And we know Democrats and Republicans will never find common ground if we never start negotiating.”

Senate action came as a Republican-controlled House panel responsible for funding the Environmental Protection Agency, clean water projects and the national parks approved a measure with slashing cuts that prompted bitter protests from Democrats. The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia, walked out of the session after excoriating the GOP measure as a “disgrace.”

At the same time, the full House began debate on an almost $600 billion measure funding the Pentagon and military operations in Afghanistan.

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